COVID-19 in a Pre-Omicron Era: A Cross-Sectional Immuno-Epidemical and Genomic Evaluation

The seventh human coronavirus was discovered and reported primarily in Wuhan, China. After intense seasons with repercussions in all areas of humanity, the pandemic demonstrates a new perspective. In Brazil, the pandemic concept had impacts in vast areas, including healthcare hospitals. This present study aims to describe and synthesize data from a determined period from the year 2021 that correlate the symptoms of passive and/or active patients for COVID-19 and their respective results of IgG/IgM serological tests in hospitals in the city of Cruzeiro, São Paulo, Brazil. The form had been applied to 333 people and obtained conclusive results and several symptoms were presented; in addition, asymptomatic cases were also analyzed and directed in the genomic study of variants of concern, as well as vaccination data in the study region.

(+)α-Tocopheryl succinate inhibits the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I and is as effective as arsenic trioxide or ATRA against acute promyelocytic leukemia in vivo

The vitamin E derivative (+)α-tocopheryl succinate (α-TOS) exerts pro-apoptotic effects in a wide range of tumors and is well tolerated by normal tissues. Previous studies point to a mitochondrial involvement in the action mechanism; however, the early steps have not been fully elucidated. In a model of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) derived from hCG-PML-RARα transgenic mice, we demonstrated that α-TOS is as effective as arsenic trioxide or all-trans retinoic acid, the current gold standards of therapy. We also demonstrated that α-TOS induces an early dissipation of the mitochondrial membrane potential in APL cells and studies with isolated mitochondria revealed that this action may result from the inhibition of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I. Moreover, α-TOS promoted accumulation of reactive oxygen species hours before mitochondrial cytochrome c release and caspases activation. Therefore, an in vivo antileukemic action and a novel mitochondrial target were revealed for α-TOS, as well as mitochondrial respiratory complex I was highlighted as potential target for anticancer therapy.